Over 60 officials in hot water over corruption charges

Sindh govt orders registration of FIRs against officials of education, health and local govt depts

KARACHI: Over 60 officials belonging to the education, health and local government departments will face the music for their alleged involvement in appointment of fake employees, embezzlement of funds and other illegal acts.

The Sindh government ordered on Wednesday the registration of around 15 FIRs against these officials. This was decided in a meeting of the Anti-Corruption and Establishment Committee-I held with chief secretary Muhammad Siddiq Memon in the chair. This was the first meeting in the last two years that was also attended by its other members, including the secretaries of local government, education and health departments and the chairperson of the anticorruption department.

According to the decision, cases will be registered against the senior officials of education, health and local government departments. The district health officers (DHOs), medical superintendents, district education officers, directors and town municipal administrators belonging to grades 17 to 20 are among those who will also face action.



Anti-corruption department chairperson Mumtaz Ali Shah told The Express Tribune that the committee has given its approval for the registration of three cases against officials of the health department, five cases against those of the education department and seven against local government officials.

“Around 125 high-profile cases of various departments were on the agenda but we could only take up around 58 cases today,” said Shah. “The fate of the others will be decided in the next meeting on August 24.” He added that apart from registration of FIRs, open inquiries will be conducted in other cases. According to Shah, a total 216 cases have been pending before the Anti-Corruption and Establishment Committee and the cases of education, health and local government are being taken up first.

Health

The most notorious cases in the health department was that of a former DHO of Mirpurkhas, Dr Ghulam Ghous, who was facing the charges of appointing 304 employees in his department in violation of the rules. Some of them are fake employees who are drawing salaries without ever coming to work.

The registration of two other FIRs has been ordered against former and sitting medical superintendents of Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, Khalid Qureshi and Rafiul Hassan, respectively. They have allegedly misappropriated funds worth Rs80 million.

Education

In the education department, officials said that the former Sukkur regional director of colleges, Altaf Hussain Abbasi, appointed 214 fake teachers, with the help of 24 other officials. They also bungled millions of rupees earmarked for schools management committee and development work.

Local government

Anti-Corruption and Establishment Committee director Nazar Mohammad Bozdar said that even more cases pertained to the local government department and action will be taken against the town municipal administrators and other officials.

Bozdar said that a case will be registered against the former town municipal officer (TMO) of Thul, Jacobabad district, Ali Akbar Banglani, who, with the help of 18 officials of his town, embezzled Rs40 million. He added that the TMO of Sinjhoro, Sanghar district, has also embezzled funds worth around Rs100 million.

According to officials, the committee has also recommended the registration of cases against two officials of the defunct Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Muhammad Junaid and Amir Bhatti, who have been facing allegations of misappropriating Rs20 million.

Water hydrant

Three engineers of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board along with KDA officials gave a fake document allowing the establishment of a water hydrant in Manghopir. “An inquiry initiated by the anti-corruption [committee] has found them guilty,” said Bozdar. “Now, the committee has recommended registering the case against these officers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2015.